Earth moving, construction and mining equipment and the like work are often used in rough, off-road terrain. These machines often employ an endless drive with track shoes that is better able to propel the machines in such environments over obstacles and uneven terrain, etc. The track chains, which include shoes, are held together by a series of interconnected track links, pins and bushings that are supported on the drive sprocket, idler and support rollers of the machine. As can be imagined, lubrication is necessary to ease the movement of a pin or bushing relative to each other or to one or more track links so that the articulated joints of the track chain may move, allowing the needed flexibility for the track chain to move about the undercarriage or conform to the terrain.
Seal assemblies are provided to prevent the loss this lubrication. However, such seal assemblies need to be installed and protected by the structure that surrounds or houses them. For example, it is undesirable for the seal assemblies to be heavily loaded or “packed” as this could lead to damage of the seal assembly, leading to a leakage of the lubricant. Also, installing the seal assemblies can be difficult without causing some damage to the seal assemblies.
In many applications, the structure for housing the seal is in a track link that is part of the larger track chain assembly. Assembling the track chain assembly without pinching or otherwise deforming to an undesirable extent the seal assembly may be difficult. Therefore, a way to install a seal assembly in such a track chain assembly, and more particularly, in a track link is needed.